This text presents the program with links to (power point) presentations, reports of sessions and student responses. The executive report of entire program was written by Dr. Matthew Anderson and can be found here.
Date of arrival at dormitories: June 25...

How should we assess the endless stream of media reports and images that we are exposed to daily? On July 2, 2018, Matthew Sparks (M.A., Georgetown University) facilitated an important and evocative discussion of this question and introduced Arab-West Report, the massive electronic database...

The Egyptian writer, thinker, and Islamic affairs specialist Islām Buḥayrī (Islam Behery) said on the television program “The Compass” that Muftī ʿAṭīyah Ṣaqr, head of the former fatwa committee at al-Azhar, released a compilation of fatwas in May 1997. One of these well-known fatwas forbade the...

In a meeting with French Ambassador Nicolas Galey and the French delegation accompanying him, the Grand Shaykh of The Azhar, Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyīb stated that he is confident that the Egyptian people will surpass the actual crisis. The meeting that took place on Wednesday, December 19, tackled issues...

The Islamic Research Academy, headed by the Azhar’s Grand Shaykh Dr. Ahmad al-Tayyīb, decided to postponed examining the “women document” until it is being finally reviewed. The document will be discussed the coming week (before January 27, 2013) during the meeting of the Azhar Senior Scholars that...

“The purpose of our discussion on the foundations of human fraternity is to launch the project of rebuilding the true bridges of human communication, fruitful cooperation, trust, respect, and love that can bring all humanity—in all its diversity—to the same destination: peace. We also aim to open...

Many foreign media outlets coverage focused on the political scene in Egypt highlighting the results of the constitutional plebiscites that ended with a victory to the Islamist powers; however leaving the credibility of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, and most of all, the legitimacy of a hastily...

“The Pope's visit will send a strong message across the region and the world that people of different faiths can live, work and worship together,” said United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Washington Yūsuf al-ʿUtayba (Yousef Al Otaiba).
‘Why did we invite the Pope to the Arabian Peninsula?’ asked al-...

His Holiness Pope Tawāḍrūs II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of St. Mark, and the Grand Imam Dr. Aḥmad al-Ṭayyib, Shaykh of al-Azhar, with President ʿAbd al-Fattaḥ al-Sīsī standing between the two, and behind all three are models of the al-Fatāh al-ʿAlīm Mosque and the Cathedral of the Nativity.

President Muhammad Mursī decision to appoint 90 members of the Shūrá Council came as an evidence that Islamists, especially the MB, will have control over the number of appointees. This contradicts with spokesperson for the President Yāsir ‘Alī’s statements that 75 percent of appointees will not be...

On the same context, Al-Shurūq al-Jadīd newspaper reported the Churches’- as well as The Azhar’s- dismay over Burhāmī’s statements on the position of the Azhar’s Grand Shaykh and on articles endorsed in the new Constitution.

The three major Coptic Churches of Egypt strongly condemned the statement released by the deputy leader of the SalafīDa’wah (the Salafī Call), Shaykh Yāsir Burhāmī. Speaking during a video-taped conference of scholars and Du’ā (preachers), Burhāmī praised the articles included in the new...

Father Rif’at Fikrī of Shubrā’ s EvangeliCal Church, declared that an agreement has been met with the presidency to present a memorandum listing ten articles in the newly-ratified constitution for amendment to be discussed once the new People’s Assembly is elected.
Father Rafīq Greish, media...

Al-Akhbār published an article on Burhāmī’s claim that his statement during a video footage has been “misinterpreted”. The deal would pave the way for a Shari'a-based constitution while temporality holding the immunity of the Azhar’s grand Shaykh.

Representatives of the Azhar body vehemently denied the allegations suggested by deputy chief of the Salafīsts and former member of the Ca which drew up the new Constitution, Shaykh Yāsir Burhāmī. The Salafī preacher suggested that the Azhar had approved Article 219, which endorses the provisions...

“You do not deserve freedom and justice, if you deny them for your opponents, and if you do not strive to grant them the full rights of citizenship, so be sure that no one will strive for yours, unless you experience the bitter taste of being segregated. Freedom, justice and equality are rights...

During a meeting with the Right Reverend Jonathan Frost, Bishop of Southampton in the Church of England Diocese of Winchester; The Right Reverend-Elect Dr. Grant LeMarquand, Area (Assistant) Bishop for the Horn of Africa; The Most Rev. Dr. Munīr Hannā Anīs (Mouneer Hanna Anis), President Bishop of...